Privacy policy
Last updated 15 August 2026
The short version. SM Crawler runs on your own computer. Your messages, your email and your passwords stay there. We do not have a copy, we cannot read them, and there is no account with us.
Who this is about
SM Crawler is made and published by David Borg (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what happens to information when you use it. If you have a question about anything here, contact us at the address at the end.
Where your information lives
SM Crawler is software you install and run on your own device. It is not a service we host. When you connect an account, the resulting access key is written to a file on your own machine, inside the SM Crawler folder in your home directory. The same is true of the messages and posts it collects, which are kept only so the app can show you a feed.
We do not receive, store, process or have access to any of it. No account is created with us, and nothing is uploaded to us.
What SM Crawler collects, on your device
| What | Why | Where it is kept |
|---|---|---|
| Access keys for the accounts you connect | So the app can read your own messages and mentions on your behalf | On your device only |
| Mail server addresses, usernames and app passwords | To watch the inboxes you ask it to watch | On your device only |
| Recent messages, comments, mentions and email subject lines | To show them in your feed | On your device only |
| Technical logs | So a problem can be explained in plain words instead of a code | On your device only |
Information from connected platforms
When you connect Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Business or an email inbox, SM Crawler asks that platform only for what it needs to show you your own activity — for example comments on your posts, people who mention you, and messages sent to you. It does not ask for anything about other people beyond what is necessary to display who contacted you, and it does not build profiles, sell data, or use your content to train anything.
Where a platform's own rules forbid access to something, SM Crawler does not attempt to get at it another way. It tells you the limit instead.
The browser add-ons, and your own WhatsApp
Two parts of SM Crawler do not talk to a platform’s interface at all, and it is worth being exact about them.
The Facebook and Instagram add-ons. Personal Facebook timelines and personal Instagram inboxes cannot be read by any application through Meta’s interfaces. For those, SM Crawler offers small add-ons you install in your own browser. An add-on reads the Facebook notifications page, or the Instagram inbox, in a tab you are signed in to, and hands what it sees to the copy of SM Crawler running on the same machine. It is not given and does not ask for your password; it can see only what is already on your screen; it sends nothing to us or to anyone else; and uninstalling it from your browser stops it completely and immediately.
Your own WhatsApp. If you ask it to, SM Crawler links itself to your WhatsApp account as an additional device — the same mechanism as WhatsApp Web — by showing a code you scan with your phone. Messages arrive end-to-end encrypted and are decrypted on your machine, where they stay. We never hold the link, the code or the messages. Unlinking the device in WhatsApp → Linked devices ends it at once.
How information travels
SM Crawler talks directly to the platforms you connect, from your device, over an encrypted connection.
To receive messages that a platform must deliver to you (for example WhatsApp Business), your device needs an address the platform can reach. SM Crawler uses a secure tunnel provided by Cloudflare for this. Traffic passes through that tunnel to reach your machine; it is not stored there by us, and the tunnel exists only while SM Crawler is running.
Sharing
We do not sell, rent or share your information, because we do not hold it. If you choose to forward an item to another system you use — for example your own TORRI inbox — that happens at your instruction, from your machine, to a destination you specify.
How long it is kept
For as long as you keep it. Because everything sits in a folder on your device, you decide. Deleting the folder deletes the lot. See Delete my data.
Your rights
You have the right to see, correct, export and erase your information. Since it is on your own device, you can exercise all of these directly and immediately, without asking us. If you are in the EU or UK and believe your rights have not been respected, you may complain to your national data protection authority; in Malta this is the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner.
Children
SM Crawler is not intended for children and should not be used by anyone under 16.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and the current version always sits at this address.
Contact
David Borg — dj.borg@icloud.com